‘Dancing With the Stars,’ Season 14, Episode 2: TV Recap

“Dancing with the Stars” presents what seems to be its usual roster of Week 2 dances: quickstep and jive, the fastest of the ballroom and Latin routines. (To refresh your memories, the jive features kicks, flips and high energy, while the quickstep involves hops, runs and chasses, which feature gliding in a step-together-step motion.) With no elimination last Monday, will tonight give the couples a second chance to make a first impression? Can Jaleel White and Katherine Jenkins maintain their insanely high – 26! – first-week scores? Can someone like Melissa Gilbert rebound?

Roshon Fegan and Chelsie Hightower use “swagger” almost a dozen times in their intro video. Chelsie asks the Disney star to be a prince, but the hip-hop fan sees few correlations between his dance genre of choice and ballroom. Their quickstep eschews the usual music in favor of Good Charlotte (“Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous”). Roshon dazzles in a sequined tux, and while he gets a bit wild at times, he has energy to spare, and the hops are Energizer Bunny-worthy. Carrie Ann says he turned “swagger” (yes, that word) into sophistication, and even grumpy Len “thoroughly enjoyed it.” Score: 26 (Carrie Ann 9, Len 8, Bruno 9). A 26 to start Week Two? Are we going to get a 10 before the night is over? Val Chmerkovskiy reveals the musical selection to his partner, Sherri Shepherd, at the start of rehearsal footage: “Proud Mary.” Sherri, who’s top-heavy and lacking in stamina, thinks that instead of ‘Proud Sherri, we’re looking at Dead Sherri.” (Val didn’t seem to say anything in the lead-up to the dance.) Last week, the judges said Sherri was the happiest contestant they’d ever seen, and her ebullience continues in this jive. She shimmies, she sings along, she makes the audience giddy. The judges seem to overlook the slow-looking kicks and the missed passes, with Carrie Ann claiming confidence can take you past mistakes. Score: 23 (Carrie Ann 8, Len 7, Bruno 8).

Following his brother for the second straight week is Maksim Chmerkovskiy, doing a quickstep with Melissa. Trivia: Melissa dated Billy Idol in the 1980s! (We learn this because her dance is to “Dancing with Myself.”) Melissa declares the quickstep “more difficult than childbirth,” and she puzzles Maks when she cries after he compliments her. Watching Melissa is a tense experience because, as the judges observe, she can’t cover or relax when she’s thinking. She’s better in hold, a good thing for the quickstep, though her arms remain awkward. Carrie Ann and Len disagree about the sequence, but both say she’s good at times and then sloppy or loose at others. Score: 20 (Carrie Ann 7, Len 6, Bruno 7).

Jack Wagner does all right with a cool, suave arm/shoulder movement, but incorporating arms and hips doesn’t go as well. As with last week, Jack is hard on himself, though he wants partner Anna Trebunskaya to continue to push him. Everything seems off in this jive, especially at the three-quarter mark, where Jack’s being ahead of the beat becomes obvious. He wants to be the next Blues Brother, dancing to “Gimme Some Lovin,” but as Bruno notes, the kicks and flips aren’t on the beat. Carrie Ann calls it overdancing. Score: 21 (all 7s).

The audience loves Gladys Knight, squealing for the Empress of Soul and partner Tristan MacManus as soon as they step on the floor. Gladys “doesn’t want to just pass” with the dance – she wants to do it well. They quickstep on piano keys to Stevie Wonder, using the musical cues to guide their choreography, which is cute though obvious. Gladys and Tristan have a great, connected chemistry – a move where he pulls her back to him toward the end is slinky – but the dance is slack. It doesn’t have the energy last week’s cha cha did. Carrie Ann has it right when she dings it as too casual, and Bruno warns Gladys to watch her frame. Len says he “didn’t 100% appreciate it.” Score: 19 (Carrie Ann 7, Len 5, Bruno 7). The audience boos Len vociferously. “I knew the frame was going to get me,” Gladys admits afterward.

Katherine arguably may have been the least-known contestant going into Week 1, and thus in danger of an early ouster, but a score of 26 tied her at the top of the leaderboard. A bashful Katherine giggles when Mark asks her to “shake my naughty bits.” Mark, who loves the jive, wants to make this “sexy, sassy, raunchy” – not words one associates with such a dance. The classical singer turns into a Bond girl with a “Welsh wiggle” in a casino-themed routine. Mark has a tendency to overpower his partners in the jive. Katherine is one of the few who can pull some of the attention toward herself. She has precise kicks and flips that make Bruno ecstatic. Carrie Ann swoons over the hyperextension in Katherine’s legs. Score: 26 (Carrie Ann 9, Len 8, Bruno 9).

ABC producers want to make a competition between Katherine and Mark and fellow first-week-26 scorers Jaleel and Kym Johnson, assigning them the same dance and not breaking for commercial between performances. Kym, impressed with Jaleel’s potential, says she can get carried away with planning. Where Katherine and Mark were sassy-sexy, Jaleel and Kym are sassy-sweet as a soda-shop waiter and customer. They’re also far less dynamic. It’s a cute routine, but it’s just there. It lacks energy and sparkle, particularly compared with the duo before them. Overall, though they liked certain elements – the toe-heel swivels (Len), the quirkiness (Bruno) – the judges were lukewarm. Score: 22 (Carrie Ann 7, Len 7, Bruno 8).

Maria Menounos has the first injury of the season, a strained rib, perhaps incurred from all the laughing she and Derek do in rehearsal. Maria earns the “most improved” award, dancing rather than posing this week in a Bonnie-and-Clyde-themed quickstep. From the high-energy start to the strong frame – “that’s a frame you can frame,” Bruno raves – Maria shows potential when last week she was forgettable. Unfortunately, she loses a step in the run, and she and Derek come out of sync in the middle. The judges forgive that, based on their scores. Score: 25 (Carrie Ann 8, Len 8, Bruno 9).

The world-famous athlete Martina Navratilova is the first person this season to cry tears of pain and frustration, after reinjuring a left toe. Rehearsal with Tony Dovolani also includes insecurity and difficulty grasping steps. These problems continue into the dance, where Martina and Tony flirt with the judges at both the start and end of their jive to “Tell Her about It.” She looks petrified, glancing at Tony during their side-by-side formations as if she was forgetting the steps. In fact, she was, as Carrie Ann notes the oft-missed counts of eight. Once again, Len criticizes Martina for being too neat and precise. Martina acknowledges, “I blew it.” Score: 17 (Carrie Ann 6, Len 5, Bruno 6).

Donald Driver and his partner, Peta Murgatroyd, wanted 8s after last week’s cha cha but received only 7s. The man nicknamed “Quickie” as a child looks forward to the quickstep, though he doesn’t grasp it as fast as he wants to. On the ballroom floor, Donald winks at the camera, gives Peta some flowers and looks as if he wants to take off before the music and routine are ready for him to do so. Once everyone is in sync, Donald leads Peta across the floor with confidence and a huge smile. He has an easy glide and, as Carrie Ann notes, clearly has studied his fellow footballers on “DWTS” because of his hold. Though Len’s praise for the quickstep is noteworthy, it’s what he says about the previous week that’s even more remarkable: “I undermarked you.” That may be a first for Len. Score: 24 (straight 8s).

Gavin DeGraw, the quintessential goofy white boy, has a Matthew McConaughy vibe in rehearsal, relaxed bordering on lazy. Partner Karina Smirnoff seems amused but annoyed. It turns out Gavin and Karina put in an extra 13 hours of rehearsal this week ahead of their 1950s Brando/Elvis/James Dean jive. Gavin clearly tries, and it’s a surprise just how much Karina has managed to push him. Those kicks aren’t always pretty; he contorts himself into the oddest shapes. Carrie Ann calls him funky and praises Gavin’s movement outside his comfort level. Bruno slobbers repeatedly about Gavin in leather. Score: 21 (all 7s). Finally, the screaming and shrieking begin for William Levy (oh, and partner Cheryl Burke). William knows he can’t rely on his Latin flavor in ballroom, so “I have to rely on my dancing skills, which aren’t very good.” To get the technique sharper, Cheryl pulls out the posture bar. The contraption works: Len compliments William’s movement and posture. However, William looks as if he doesn’t know what to do with his hands when he’s out of hold, and oddly, he and Cheryl aren’t as close as they should be (which Len also notes). Carrie Ann and Bruno, blinded by William’s looks and the female audience members’ delirium, call him debonair and a matinee idol and don’t offer any dance advice. Score: 25 (Carrie Ann 9, Len 7, Bruno 9).

The scores from last week and this week are combined, putting Katherine at the top with a 52 and Martina and Tony at the bottom with a 37. Even though she has the name recognition, it’s probably not enough to prevent Martina from joining fellow tennis star Monica Seles (in Season 6) as another first “DWTS” star to exit.

About Speakeasy

Speakeasy is a blog covering media, entertainment, celebrity and the arts. The publication is produced by Barbara Chai and Jonathan Welsh with contributions from the Wall Street Journal staff and others. Write to us at speakeasy@wsj.com or follow us on Twitter at @WSJSpeakeasy or individually @barbarachai.